Report generation tools access data values representing utilization, status, properties, characteristics, statistics, and/or other parameters of logical and physical resources within a communications network and generate a report based on those values. Typically, a user of a report generation tool selects one or more reports from a group of reports available at the report generation tool via a report selection interface (i.e., a graphical user interface (“GUI”) or command line interface (“CLI”)) and those reports are generated and displayed to the user.
Users often request reports from a report generation tool to troubleshoot or diagnose operational anomalies (or problems) in an information system such as a communications network. Frequently, after discovering an unexpected value or some other indication of an operational problem within a report, a user generates additional reports to determine the status or operational state of other resources that are in related to the resource associated with the original report.